An examination of aspects of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) from a scientific perspective.

Friday, January 30, 2015

Air safety issues in Australia, and UAP

Introduction:
Since the 1950's, aircraft pilots in Australia have periodically reported observations of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP.) My catalogue of the more interesting UAP reports from Australia ( click here) contains dozens of such reports, including the following two from 1997.

28 September 1997 Jacobs Well, Queensland 2359hrs
Pilot Rob Hill and passenger were flying between Brisbane and Lismore in a helicopter when they sighted an unusual object, with three lights on it, spaced evenly along its side. It tilted like an aircraft banking, and disappeared. Brisbane air traffic control advised him that there was no other traffic in the area. (The Northern Star newspaper, 3 October 1997.)

1 December 1997 Kangaroo Island, South Australia 2330hrs
Mr Kym Koch, flying at 4000 feet between Adelaide and Kingscote reported seeing an object low on the horizon. He described it as a very bright, round, orange coloured object at 20 degrees elevation. He was then contacted by Adelaide approach radar who told him they had received a report from Kangaroo Island Police about the same object. A police officer had been watching it for 9 minutes as it travelled westwards. It was also reported that it was detected by radar. (Channel 7 news, and Sunday Mail newspaper 7 December 1997.)

Observations versus air safety issues:
Most of the reports from pilots, are simply observations of something they considered unusual, similar to many such visual observations from the ground. However, a number of the reports represent a potential air safety issue, where they appears to be the possibility of a near-miss or a collision. Examples of this are:

19 March 2014 Perth, Western Australia 0913hrs
A Skippers aviation aircraft with passengers onboard was about to land at Perth international airport, when the crew sighted an approaching object. A green coloured, cylindrical object passed the aircraft at close range, after the command pilot changed course to avoid what he thought would be a collision. The full report on this event may be read here.

30 August 1975 Off Townsville, Queensland 1233z
The crew of a RAAF Neptune patrol aircraft were flying at 3000 feet. A group of three white/yellow lights approached the aircraft, and the pilot made a left turn to avoid what he believed to be an imminent mid-air collision. Click here to read my full report.

Australian aviation authorities:
In Australia there are three separate agencies involved at government level. These are:

2010 - who receives reports of possible UAP?
In 2010 I submitted Freedom of Information requests to all three agencies asking them for any documents they held on the subject of "unidentified flying objects." I received responses from all three agencies. CASA essentially said they held no such documents. The ATSB and ASA provided an amount of documentation. I reported on their responses in a series of blog posts, ATSB click here; ASA click here.

2015 - ask again
This year, Melbourne colleague, Paul Dean, wrote to Air Services Australia under the FOI Act and asked them for documents concerning:

The documents:
Some of the ASA reports have mundane observations, for example:

ATS-0071534 26 October 2008 7:44 Canberra tower.

At approximately 0744 z, 3 large black objects wereobserved rising from the vicinity of Mt Mugga,ascending and drifting south. Probably home madehot air ballons using black plastic and a flamesource at the base. 2 RPT acft on final RWY 35 wereadvised about the objects and that towerconsidered the objects to be far enough west offinal to not impinge on their approach to land. Oneof the objects then caught fire and disappeared,whilst the other 2 continued to climb and drift tothe south east across final for RWY 35. QFA805 wasvectored to the west of final for a rejoin from thewest to avoid the objects. Objects last sightedabout 6 nm to south east of Canberra around 3000 to5000 feet

and:

ATS-0072538 4 December 2008 9:35 Cairns TowerUnidentified lights, believed to be floating lanterns,released from one of the beaches (assumed to beHolloways or Machans Beaches) . 2 lots of 3'lanterns' released 10 mins apart, and floated upjust east of final. Qld police notified. Qld police alsoreceived public reports of same. All relevantaircraft on final notified.

Three of the ASA observations are of more interest. These are:

ATS-0075593 10 April 2009 1:53 TOPSANO332 tracking DN‐KU on descent, reported an'airprox' with an unknown aircraft approximatelyopposite direction, at approximately A090.Subsequent questioning of the crew elicited thatthe aircraft was observed approximately 3‐4 NMeast of the flight planned track and followed onTCAS, but there was no RA, nor was the aircraftsighted. Weather conditions were VMC. ANO332reported unable to raise the aircraft on VHF.ATSsurveillance is not available in this part of theairspace so the report was unable to becorroborated by ATC. No flights matching the aircraft were known to the ATS system.ATS-0098025 26 September 2012 2:11 Sydney TMATGW581 reported a red cylindrical object passingthe aircraft in the opposite direction when climbingthrough FL200 aproximately 20 nm miles south ofSydney.ATS-0126807 26 January 2014 23:19 Adelaide TMAAt 2315Z TGW484, inbound on the ALEXI 05V STARreported having traffic at 12 o'clock, 5NM. AAEreported there was no observed traffic in thatvicinity. TGW484 then requested a turn ontoheading 210. TGW484 then reported the traffic intheir right, 3 o'clock 2.5 NM "visual", and wereturning back for the VSA. TGW484 then asked ifAAE had the traffic on radar, 3' o'clock at 4NM. AAEreplied they had an A320 past the 3 o'clock at6.8NM. AAE confirmed whether that was the trafficthey had reported, which TGW reported they werenot sure, they had had traffic showing 2.5 NMsame level. Shortly after JST774 following TGWreported TCAS showing something at BATIP,"hovering" at A020, which then disappeared.
Paul has now submitted a further FOI request to ASA asking for any further documents they hold about three specific observations provided by them in response to Paul's initial FOI request. It will be interesting to see what emerges.